Friday, May 08, 2009

My Spice -- Garam Masala, Bhaja Masla & more...

Bengali Garam Masala is actually a very simple mix of 4 spices: Cloves, Cardamom, Cinnamon and Tej Patta. The Tej Patta as I have seen is abandoned many times in favor of the others. My Ma however loved it and used it whenever the recipe called for garam mashla as phoron (i.e. tempering the food by spicing the oil)

Whole Garam masala

She would sun the above spices and in our stainless steel jarred Bajaj Mixer make a dry powder of them and store it as a guro Garam Mashla or as we say in English Garam Masala powder

I take a step ahead and put more stuff in my Garam Masala powder. I also dry roast the spices instead of just sunning them which is the norm. My version is NOT the standard bengali version. The Bengali version usually does not have Red Chilli or Mace

Spices I use to make my Garam masala powder

My Garam Masala Powder

Dry Roast 20 Green Cardamom/Elaichi, 10 Clove/Laung, a 2" stick of cinnamon, 3-4 Dry Red Chilli for the slightest heat, 2-3 small barks of mace/javetri and a small Tej-Patta. Note: What I have here is a Bay Leaf but a small Tej Patta(Indian Bay Leaf) works better. Also you can substitute red chili with black peppercorns. You can dry roast either on the stove top or pop them in the oven at 250F for 5-8 minutes. The roasting is done only to warm the spices which have been lying around for a while. Instead you can sun them and then grind.

Grind to a fine powder in your coffee grinder.

Store in an air-tight container for future use

Lately I have been a sucker for home made spices. I cleared the pantry of all Shan masalas and barring the Kitchen King, Kasoori Methi and Amchoor I have no other store bought spice powder. Oh, wait I have a packet of Deggi Mirch which is used sparingly by us and and indulged on by the nanny.

So anyway without all the Shaan masala I was kind of stranded in no-spice land when I wanted to make a Kofta Pualo some time back. Luckily I remembered the Biryani Masala at Mallugirl's. I love that masala and use it for not only making Biryanis but in various other dishes.

Here is how I make Biryani Masala based on this recipe. I reduce the carraways seeds and increase the fennel as I like the sweetness of fennel and find cararway seeds too spicy. Also I forgo the star anise and add nutmeg powder instead of the whole.

Put all of the above in a coffee grinder jar along with 1 tsp of nutmeg powder

Grind to a smooth powder and store in an air tight jar

Use this masala for loads of stuff from adding a pinch to your pualo to spicing up the marinade for fish, from adding to biryani to your chicken curry. I use this masala alternately with Garam Masala but when using this, use a smaller quantity.

And then there is the Bhaja Mashla(Roasted Masala) my Ma makes for sprinkling over most chutneys and also in vegetable chops. I had blogged about it here in my Baked Beet Roll recipe. The Bhaja Masala is called so because the spices here are dry roasted and then ground. This spice mix has been blogged about in detail in my later post Bhaja Masla.

Bhaja Mashla

To make this Dry Roast 1 tbsp each of Jeera (Cumin Seeds), Dhania (Corriander seeds), Saunf (Fennel Seeds), 6/7 Laung (cloves) , 6/7 Elaichi (Cardamom), 3/4 TejPata(Bay leaves), an inch & half of cinnamon stick and peppercorns according to desired hotness.Then just dry grind it to a powder. Note: This was last made by my Ma and so measures are approximate

Punjabi Garam Masala

The recipe of Punjabi Garam Masala is from Anita of Mad Tea Party. Original recipe is here. I think her recipe asks for more of the black cardamom but I used about 15. Also I used the seeds and discarded the skin

I did it this way. To make this sun or gently warm on tawa 1 tbsp Cumin seeds, 1/2 tbsp Clove, 1/2 tbsp Peppercorn, a 1" stick of cinnamon, 1 tejpatta and around 15 black cardamom. Dry grind to a powder.

Check out other spices in this series in the left hand column

This weekend our kitchen floor is getting a makeover and so the kitchen will be closed for weekend. I am shacking up at a friend's place, kids in tow and the friend has promised to make a Patha'r Mangsho'r jhol for lunch tomorrow. She cooks delicious food and you know what I am looking forward to.

Wishing all Moms a Very Happy Mothers Day. There is aMother Day event going on at Desi Momz Club. All moms, member or not please feel free to contribute.

The first pic is awesome! Donkaner garam masala use kora ar na use kora eki byapar.. I have not liked any so far, so make my own too. kintu but i still use Shan Sindhi Biryani masala, & the shan Tandoori/tikka. but my hubby likes a more simple biryani masala like u made. I use all masala in everything:-D

i've cleared out the store-bought crap too. i'll try your version of garam masala the next time i make it. we get amchoor pieces here, which tastes way better when powdered fresh than the pre-powdered version.

Hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day. Kudos for being so brave to go in for renovation in kitchen with work, kids, cooking and blogging, tagged with the apron string.

Does this Masala venture carry on through the year or just a drive to get out of packed powdered spices? I do not know but other than bhaja masala, posto or shorshe, I have never taken up the spices project.

In India, the raw spices need to be washed and scrubbed clean, dried(well????) and then ground. I am not too confident of the drying bit, b'coz in case moisture remains, the whole masala will rot.

However, I still relish the taste of 'bata mashla' in my Mom's kitchen. The taste is awsome, no ground masala can even compete with the same. Hope someday I get a comparable alternative

Not Kitchen renovation, only kitchen flooring. It was fun actually, with a day and half well spent at the friend's :)The contractors here are much nicer, do very neat, on time work with part clean up so not a big hassle. The husband did the rest of the cleaning and I did not have to do anything at all.

I usually make the Garam Masala, no cleaning-drying involved and takes just a few mins. After I discovered the Biryani masala, I do that too, it really is great with chicken/mutton, pulao etc.

The Jeera and Dhania is pretty doable too but that I sometimes lapse :)

If I had to clean, wash, dry forget it nothing would be ever done :D

Indo

Try this Biryani Masala, if you want follow Shaheen's orig. recipe which calls for star anise and more shajeera. It definitely kicks up biryani flavor by a notch

Soma

Yeah that Sindhi biryani masala was a staple at my home too as was achari and tikka and what not :) The tikka/tandoori is great for grilling though and maybe I will buy one for all the grill sessions

Lovely pics of Masalas! I have never tried making garam masala by myself.Beautiful fabric on the bacground:)btw- the necklace I made was my very first attempt in Jewellery making:)I could not meet Mandira as she is real busy!

I am very happy to read your articles it’s very useful for me,and I am completely satisfied with your website.All comments and articles are very useful and very good.Your blog is very attention-grabbing. I am loving all of the in turn you are sharing with each one!…Spices

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About Me

Predominantly a Bong, who loves being a Mom and loves to cook among other things for the li'l one and the big ones.She loves to write too and you will find her food spiced up with stories. Mainly a collection of Bengali Recipes with other kinds thrown in, in good measure. A Snapshot of Bengali Cuisine